In the prior art, large rolling bearings are known that comprise two mutually axially offset rows of rolling elements with a contact angle of 45° or more and, disposed between them, an additional row of rolling elements with a contact angle of less than 45°. Such an arrangement has proven very robust in practice, but the process of assembling a rolling bearing equipped with a total of at least three rows of rolling elements does present problems. This relates not only to the expenditure required to insert the rolling elements, but also particularly to the need for precision in the machining of the necessary raceways, which are usually incorporated directly into the connecting elements.
Arrangements for mounting relatively rotatable parts for use in blade bearings of wind power plants or wind energy systems according to the current state of the art are described, for example, in the patent documents EP 1 266 137 B1, EP 2 382 146 B1, EP 2372149 A1 and EP 2087249 B1.
Although the current-art arrangements described in those documents for mounting relatively rotatable parts for use in blade bearings of wind power plants or wind energy systems do basically fulfill the technical task, there is need for improvement, primarily in order to increase the service life of bearing arrangements that are used particularly as blade bearings, or, for example, also in similarly constructed water power systems, for example in the field of marine current power stations. Under some circumstances, it would be desirable to create rolling bearings that permit the least possible gap widening. This is because, precisely in the case of heavily loaded bearings, the rolling elements rolling inside a gap are elastically deformable under pressure and may not be able to fully perform their task of precisely orienting and positioning the supported parts with respect to one another.
From the disadvantages of the described prior art comes the problem initiating the invention, to further develop a rolling bearing arrangement of the above species in such a way that optimal robustness properties are combined with the longest possible service life and the lowest possible assembly expenditure.